The cost of the sports base in the Carpathian region, the construction of which has been ongoing since 2019, may exceed half a billion
The State Audit Service announced the start of an audit of the budget of the Polyanytsky village council of the Ivano-Frankivsk region. Why was the respected auditors so interested in a small community of 10 thousand people, located deep in the mountains? The answer is obvious: it is on the territory of this community, among the Carpathian mountains, that large-scale construction of a new biathlon complex continues. True, work was stopped during the great war. However, this fact did not stop the auditors. On the contrary, the State Audit Service expressed concern about possible risks in the future. They say that the facility is being built for public money on the private land of Bukovel LLC. The company belongs to the family of MP Igor Palitsa. Palitsa, in turn, is a business partner of the oligarch Igor Kolomoisky, whom law enforcement officers charged with a number of serious crimes, and he is now sitting in the SBU detention center. In addition, Kolomoisky’s Skorzonera company is also involved in the construction of the biathlon complex as the general designer.
Details of the large construction that began during the premiership of Vladimir Groysman and continues to this day
A third of a billion from the budget has already been spent. But that is not all
In the summer of 2018, the government turned on the green light for the creation of a modern complex for biathletes in the Ivano-Frankivsk region. The then Cabinet of Ministers under the leadership of Vladimir Groysman outlined the requirements for the construction of a facility for which a state subsidy would be allocated point by point.
First, local authorities had to find a plot of land. Secondly, the constructed facility must become communal property. Thirdly, the constructed complex must meet the requirements of the International Biathlon Union (IBU) for hosting state and international sporting events.
In the spring of 2019, the Carpathian authorities approved a project for the construction of a biathlon complex with an expected cost of almost 400 million UAH in the village of Polyanytsya on the territory of the famous resort Bukovel. The complex will consist of a 5 km long roller ski track; automobile and pedestrian tunnels and bridges; administrative buildings; spectator stands for 3 thousand people; networks of snow spray systems; lighting and the like.
The customer for the construction was the Polyanitsky village council. In June 2019, at a tender (the first stage of construction), he chose the winner - Ivano-Frankivsk LLC PBS with an offer of UAH 148.35 million. Before the big war, the company was one of the five largest contractors of the presidential project “Big Construction”.
According to the Youcontrol analytical system, PBS LLC is registered to local resident Ivanna Nepik, who, according to media reports, previously worked at... the Bukovel resort of Igor Kolomoisky. At the same time, former people’s deputy and now deputy of the Ivano-Frankivsk regional council from the “For Maybutne” party, Alexander Shevchenko, another well-known associate of Kolomoisky, retains influence on the company. Until November 14, 2023, the aforementioned party “For Maibutne” was headed by the people’s deputy and another business partner of Kolomoisky, Igor Palitsa.
Before entering big politics (2014), Alexander Shevchenko led the Skorzonera company, which is closely connected with the Bukovel resort, for ten years. Moreover, Skorzonera is the general designer of the construction of the biathlon complex and carries out design supervision over it.
That is, in fact, a large state tender ended up in the hands of structures associated with the well-known business-political trio Kolymoisky-Palitsa-Shchevchenko...
In October 2021, the Polyanitsky village council raffled off the second stage of construction of the complex. And another “surprise” - PBS LLC won it again, offering to carry out the work for UAH 162.5 million.
According to Glavkom’s calculations based on information from the state portal Spending on treasury payments, for 2019-2021 PBS LLC received UAH 323.94 million of budget funds while building the biathlon complex.
But during the war, in 2022-2023, not a penny was transferred to this company from the state budget as part of the construction of the biathlon base.
In a comment to the “Glavkom”, the director of the communal enterprise of the Polyanitsky village council “Sports Biathlon Complex” Andrey Storozhuk (an eloquent fact: this person is an ex-assistant of the aforementioned Alexander Shevchenko during his work in parliament, when he worked in parliament - “Glavkom”) assessed the readiness complex at 60-70%. According to him, it is still necessary to finance 27 million UAH to complete the first stage of construction and about another 100 million UAH for the second stage. The completion of two stages will speed up the full holding of biathlon competitions.
“As of November 2023, a roller ski track with a length of 4 km, 32 targets, 17 changing cabins for athletes and judges, and snow guns have been built. Now the question of implementing the third stage of construction remains open, which includes the construction of an administrative building, spectator stands and lighting. The installation of the lighting system alone will cost about UAH 80 million,” Storozhuk said.
In addition, the director of the municipal enterprise of the Polyanitsky village council “Sports Biathlon Complex” confirmed: during martial law, construction work, as well as financing, was stopped. But money to complete the first two stages of construction of the biathlon complex can be allocated from the community budget in 2024, the utility worker added.
Biathlon - on the lands of Bukovel
The biathlon complex, built with state funds, is located on the private lands of Bukovel LLC. The auditors immediately caught this detail and reproached the local authorities in the official release of the State Audit Service: “The decision to build a modern biathlon complex on the lands owned by Bukovel LLC, despite the presence of a reserve of communal property at the disposal of the community, was made by officials of the local village council.” .
We are talking about three land plots with a total area of 18.4 hectares of Bukovel LLC, which were leased to the village council. Of these, the area for development of the complex is 8.56 hectares. According to the Youcontrol analytical system, the founders of the Bukovel company are Zakhar and Oksana Palitsa, the son and wife of People’s Deputy Igor Palitsa. By the way, the registration address of the owners themselves is Geneva (Switzerland).
Director of the Biathlon Sports Complex Andrei Storozhuk believes that the land issue can be resolved when the facility is completed. There are two options for the development of events. The first is that the village council formalizes the lease of private land plots to Bukovel LLC. The second one buys these plots. In response to the clarification question from the “Glavkom”, whether the private owner intends to donate the plots to the local community, Mr. Storozhuk replied that this issue has not yet been discussed.
It turns out that auditors have grounds when they suspect that a private company, on the one hand, can resort to blackmail by dictating its rights to the village council. On the other hand, Bukovel LLC, having entered into an alliance with local authorities, increases the capitalization of its own tourism network. After all, biathletes not only need to train, but also somewhere to rest and spend the night. Just in this case, there will be a wide network of private tourist hotels that have grown up near the unfinished sports facility.
An audit that no one knows about
The close attention of control authorities to the biathlon complex is not news for the locals. In 2020, the use of state budget funds for construction was already checked by the Accounts Chamber. The head of the Biathlon Sports Complex, Storozhuk, convinces that everything is in order financially. But as for documentation like the facility’s passport, the auditors found certain clues, the utility worker admitted.
By the way, the specified audit of the Accounts Chamber on the efficiency of using public funds during the reconstruction of sports complexes is stuck. According to informed sources of the Glavkom, it was conducted by a member of the Accounts Chamber, Andrei Didyk. On December 21, 2021, he presented the report at the meeting. However, the auditor did not have enough votes to approve the results, and the decision could not be made. Mr. Didyk made other attempts to submit his report to the Accounts Chamber for consideration.
“Such cases when the Accounts Chamber does not approve audit reports are infrequent. This time, Didyk’s colleague’s report seemed unprofessionally presented, without a general conclusion. Many members of the Accounts Chamber had the impression that he deliberately made it this way,” a member of the Accounts Chamber who was present at the meeting recalled in a conversation with “Glavkom.”
The interlocutor added: at the beginning of the construction of the biathlon complex, the Ivano-Frankivsk regional state administration was headed by Denis Shmygal, now the head of government. At that time, the regional government provided a state subsidy for this sports complex. In addition, member Didyk and Prime Minister Shmygal are old acquaintances; they worked together in the tax service of the Lviv region. The editor's interlocutor did not undertake to say whether this connection influenced the fact that the audit report was actually buried.
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At the dawn of his presidential term, Vladimir Zelensky set an ambitious goal - to hold the Olympic Games in Ukraine. Former Minister of Youth and Sports Vadim Gutzeit also noted that Ukraine plans to apply to host the Winter Olympic Games in 2030. “We are considering our western region: Bukovel, for example, there is already a certain infrastructure there,” said the Minister of Sports, who was recently fired.
An attentive reader will correct us: there is now a fierce war going on in Ukraine with Russia. Like, talking about the Olympics is not the time. True, the President of the Biathlon Federation of Ukraine, People's Deputy Ivan Krulko still does not think so. He is convinced that the biathlon complex in Prykarpattya is the only surviving base in the state that professional biathletes now use to maintain their physical shape. By the way, in 2022, about 1 thousand biathletes trained here.
“No one questions the fact that all accumulated funds should be directed to the defense of Ukraine. At the same time, the country must also have places to train athletes. After all, biathlon teams now spend more than 240 days a year abroad, where they train. Accordingly, considerable budget funds are spent on this. So, perhaps it’s cheaper to build something here in Ukraine to conduct training camps?” - Krulko argues.
